Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and most of the other congressional democrats are hypocritical, blundering, political hacks without an ounce of integrity. They passed the ARRA bill, after inserting an amendment authorizing the payment of bonuses to AIG executives, without reading it, without adequately debating it, and they are now throwing everyone in sight under the bus to cover their own asses because of the miss-informed public outrage. For the first time since the Great Society legislative feeding frenzy of the 60’s under LBJ the democrats can’t stop acting like pigs at the trough. They know that everything they pass will probably be signed by BHO out on one of his junkets, hell, most of it was “demanded” by the White House to begin with.
I know of no congressperson who didn’t say YES I having read the bill, (> 1,000 pages in < 24 hours??) before it was passed, but they are all now expressing shock and surprise about the Bonus payment authorization. Huh? You can’t have it both ways kids. This also applies to Mr. President. His secretary Geithner says he knew about it all along, but he failed to tell his boss? And his boss failed to ask? They are both either lying or completely incompetent.
AIG Bonuses:
1. “Bonus” is a miss-label. Most of us think of a bonus as payment for extra effort or as a reward for some form of excellence. Combine that with the AIG debacle and you get a predictable reaction. The amounts involved were contractual agreements to pay individuals to help eliminate their own jobs. They were asked to help unwind the VERY complicated market derivative financial instruments they had created and managed. Who better to un-build a structure than the engineer who designed and supervised its construction? Basically, these individuals were told, you are fired, but if you stick around long enough to un-build your creation with the least possible loss to AIG, we will pay you a “retention fee” for saving us hundreds of millions. That is exactly what these individuals did, and payment was made as agreed.
2. Timothy Geithner new about them, Barack Obama new about them, Congress knew about them and included and amendment in the bill to allow them. The contracts for these bonuses were even disclosed in an SEC filing in May, 2008.
3. The congressional response of passing an illegal 90% ex-post facto income tax on these bonuses. How can that stand? All of the bonuses paid to date are exempt from this tax since they were paid before it was law, so what’s the point. We are taxing future bonuses? So that means that none of us can ever receive a bonus in the future? This is blatant pandering to public opinion by arrogant idiots in congress who think they are schmoozing us. I am completely disgusted by them. I have resolved to never again vote for an incumbent congress candidate.
4. There are actually people picketing in front of AIG offices and sending death threats to the families of the people who received these bonuses. Talk about stupidity. That explains the people in congress; they come from and are elected by this pool of numbskulls. God help us… oops, never mind, we aren’t allowed to invoke His involvement.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Where Have You gone, Milton Friedman?
By: Christopher Ruddy
If Simon & Garfunkel were still recording today, they might pen a hit new song, to the beat of “Mrs. Robinson,” titled “Where Have You Gone, Milton Friedman?”
The Nobel Prize-winning, free-market economist died in 2006. But Friedman was not only a brilliant theoretician, he was an articulate advocate for our free-enterprise system. President
Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988.
I remember as a high school student watching his TV program on PBS, “Free to Choose.” Friedman’s ideas became the underpinnings of the Reagan revolution, not to mention Margaret Thatcher’s privatization movement that helped leapfrog Britain’s economy.
Today capitalism is under attack as never before and Milton Friedman is not here to defend it.
President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are blaming capitalist greed for the current economic crisis, seeking to make scapegoats out of the “rich,” banks, Wall Street — the entire capitalist system.
Their solution is more government, more spending, and higher taxes.
What would Milton Friedman say to that?
Editor's Note: The Obama Stock Market Crash is Here. Adjust Your Portfolio For Profits, Protection!
Well, I can share with you a video of a testy but amusing confrontation between Friedman and liberal TV talk-show host Phil Donahue that took place in 1979.
Acting like Barack Obama, Donahue asks the renowned economist, “When you see the greed and the concentration of power, did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed is a good idea to run on?"
Friedman shot back: "Is there some society we know that doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course none of us are greedy; it's only the other fellow who's greedy."
Friedman continued: “The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus . . .
“In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you're talking about, they have had capitalism and largely free trade . . .
“There is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system."
Those words are so appropriate today. [You can watch the video of Friedman’s exchange with Donahue.
Friedman’s point is not that capitalism is perfect, but that it is better than all the other systems. Consider that the United States has just 5 percent of the world’s population, but its free-enterprise system produces 25 percent of the world’s GDP.
If Obama gets what he wants, attacking the rich and “spreading wealth around,” the U.S. will resemble the socialist economies of Europe — and it will also mirror their low rates of growth and economic activity. Obama’s plan will not just hurt the U.S. economy, it will take the steam out of the world economy’s engine.
But Milton Friedman still has more to say about Obama.
Recently, Newsmax’s sister publication, Financial Intelligence Report, included an economic analysis from market expert David Skarica.
Skarica cited Friedman’s 1992 classic work “Money Mischief.” As Skarica notes, everything that is unfolding today, including our government’s response to the current crisis, is all laid out in Friedman’s prophetic book.
“Friedman argues that, during recessions, governments turn on the printing presses,” Skarica wrote. “Interest rates plummet as governments move to inflate the money supply in response to an ensuing economic meltdown,” and the initial effects seem good.
That is, governments use spending to cover up economic ills, but that leads to rampant inflation.
Amazingly, what Friedman described is exactly what is happening today. Obama and the Democrats are unwilling to cut spending and be fiscally responsible, and instead will massively increase the money supply — which inevitably leads to inflation.
Skarica writes, “We are seeing this phenomenon unfold right now before our very eyes.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said there is no problem with inflation, declaring on March 10, "We do think inflation will be low over the next couple of years."
And just this week, it was announced the Fed pumped another $1.2 trillion into the economy!
Bernanke surely knows what Friedman explained in “Money Mischief” — that it takes at least a year after the massive expansion of the money supply for inflation to rear its ugly head. And Bernanke is well aware, as Friedman so artfully explains, that inflation causes a brutal economic “hangover,” making things actually worse in the long run.
Sadly, our biggest problem today is not the economic one, but one of leadership and character. We do not have the Milton Friedmans to rise to the challenge.
Without Simon & Garfunkel’s new song, perhaps we can just change the lyrics in “Mrs. Robinson” to “Where have you gone, Milton Friedman? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”
Added Comment:
If you think the interest rates of the 70's were high at +18%, just hang on to your hat. This time it will be even higher. There is a physics "law" that is applicable to this: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Nobody is paying attention or nobody understands, or both. We cannot spend $1.5 TRILLION from the national credit card, without a consequence. That consequense WILL NOT be ecomonic recovery; That consequence will be inflation, increased taxes and increased interest rates. Ask Paul Volker, Friedman may be gone, but Volker is not and he got his advise from Milton Friedman when he tamed our 20% inflation rate > 30 years ago.
If Simon & Garfunkel were still recording today, they might pen a hit new song, to the beat of “Mrs. Robinson,” titled “Where Have You Gone, Milton Friedman?”
The Nobel Prize-winning, free-market economist died in 2006. But Friedman was not only a brilliant theoretician, he was an articulate advocate for our free-enterprise system. President
Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988.
I remember as a high school student watching his TV program on PBS, “Free to Choose.” Friedman’s ideas became the underpinnings of the Reagan revolution, not to mention Margaret Thatcher’s privatization movement that helped leapfrog Britain’s economy.
Today capitalism is under attack as never before and Milton Friedman is not here to defend it.
President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are blaming capitalist greed for the current economic crisis, seeking to make scapegoats out of the “rich,” banks, Wall Street — the entire capitalist system.
Their solution is more government, more spending, and higher taxes.
What would Milton Friedman say to that?
Editor's Note: The Obama Stock Market Crash is Here. Adjust Your Portfolio For Profits, Protection!
Well, I can share with you a video of a testy but amusing confrontation between Friedman and liberal TV talk-show host Phil Donahue that took place in 1979.
Acting like Barack Obama, Donahue asks the renowned economist, “When you see the greed and the concentration of power, did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed is a good idea to run on?"
Friedman shot back: "Is there some society we know that doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course none of us are greedy; it's only the other fellow who's greedy."
Friedman continued: “The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus . . .
“In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you're talking about, they have had capitalism and largely free trade . . .
“There is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system."
Those words are so appropriate today. [You can watch the video of Friedman’s exchange with Donahue.
Friedman’s point is not that capitalism is perfect, but that it is better than all the other systems. Consider that the United States has just 5 percent of the world’s population, but its free-enterprise system produces 25 percent of the world’s GDP.
If Obama gets what he wants, attacking the rich and “spreading wealth around,” the U.S. will resemble the socialist economies of Europe — and it will also mirror their low rates of growth and economic activity. Obama’s plan will not just hurt the U.S. economy, it will take the steam out of the world economy’s engine.
But Milton Friedman still has more to say about Obama.
Recently, Newsmax’s sister publication, Financial Intelligence Report, included an economic analysis from market expert David Skarica.
Skarica cited Friedman’s 1992 classic work “Money Mischief.” As Skarica notes, everything that is unfolding today, including our government’s response to the current crisis, is all laid out in Friedman’s prophetic book.
“Friedman argues that, during recessions, governments turn on the printing presses,” Skarica wrote. “Interest rates plummet as governments move to inflate the money supply in response to an ensuing economic meltdown,” and the initial effects seem good.
That is, governments use spending to cover up economic ills, but that leads to rampant inflation.
Amazingly, what Friedman described is exactly what is happening today. Obama and the Democrats are unwilling to cut spending and be fiscally responsible, and instead will massively increase the money supply — which inevitably leads to inflation.
Skarica writes, “We are seeing this phenomenon unfold right now before our very eyes.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said there is no problem with inflation, declaring on March 10, "We do think inflation will be low over the next couple of years."
And just this week, it was announced the Fed pumped another $1.2 trillion into the economy!
Bernanke surely knows what Friedman explained in “Money Mischief” — that it takes at least a year after the massive expansion of the money supply for inflation to rear its ugly head. And Bernanke is well aware, as Friedman so artfully explains, that inflation causes a brutal economic “hangover,” making things actually worse in the long run.
Sadly, our biggest problem today is not the economic one, but one of leadership and character. We do not have the Milton Friedmans to rise to the challenge.
Without Simon & Garfunkel’s new song, perhaps we can just change the lyrics in “Mrs. Robinson” to “Where have you gone, Milton Friedman? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”
Added Comment:
If you think the interest rates of the 70's were high at +18%, just hang on to your hat. This time it will be even higher. There is a physics "law" that is applicable to this: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Nobody is paying attention or nobody understands, or both. We cannot spend $1.5 TRILLION from the national credit card, without a consequence. That consequense WILL NOT be ecomonic recovery; That consequence will be inflation, increased taxes and increased interest rates. Ask Paul Volker, Friedman may be gone, but Volker is not and he got his advise from Milton Friedman when he tamed our 20% inflation rate > 30 years ago.
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